and 


‘^Growth 


of  the 


^^^rgdnizcd  (oljOoman’s  (oHJorJi 

of  the 

oSouthern  (Presbyterian  o^hurch 


by 

Rev.  Egbert  W.  87nith,  D.  D. 
Executive  Secretary  of  Foreign  Missions 


1 


^X<Reprinted  from  the  Fortieth  M" 

of  the  Union  Seminary  Review  of  October  1928.  j<V 


Origin  and  Qrowth - 

of  the 

Organized  Woman’s  Work 

of  the 

Southern  Presbyterian  Church 

**^hbiC^** 

EW  PEOPLE  have  any  conception  of  the  immensity  of 
the  change  that  has  taken  place  in  the  last  seventy- 
five  years  in  the  status  of  women.  While  many  of  the 
so-called  stronger  sex  are  still  unreconciled  to  the 
change,  yet  we  are  disposed  to  believe  that  in  the  far 
future,  when  another  Buckle  sits  down  to  write  the 
history  of  civilization,  he  will  see  as  the  outstanding  fact  of  our 
present  era  not  the  Great  War,  but  the  coming  of  women  into 
their  own. 

IIKW  or  have  preachers  been  the  only  sinners  in  this  matter,  as 
some  cynical  sisters  would  have  us  believe.  Most  illum¬ 
inating  and  amusing  are  some  features  of  the  early  history  of 
the  National  Educational  Association  which  was  organized  as  far 
back  as  1857.  The  Constitution  provided  that  any  “gentleman”, 
a  teacher  or  superintendent,  could  join.  About  ten  years  later 
somebody  moved  to  strike  out  “gentleman”  and  put  in  “person”. 
But  this  was  defeated  by  a  more  than  three  to  two  vote.  How¬ 
ever,  women  teachers  in  attendance  were  allowed  to  write 
papers,  provided  the  secretary  read  them.  Finally  a  certain 
lady,  whose  name  alone  would  suggest  her  leadership,  a  Mrs. 
Mary  Howe  Smith,  was  permitted  to  read  a  learned  paper  on 
oral  instruction,  its  philosophy  and  methods.  Shortly  after,  by 
a  majority  vote,  the  word  “person”  was  substituted  for  “gentle¬ 
man”. 

MOST  interesting  proof  it  is  of  the  excessive,  or,  as  some 
would  say,  the  admirable,  conservatism  of  our  Southern 
Presbyterian  Church  that  this  question  of  whether  a  woman  may 


3 


read  her  own  report  came  up  in  our  own  General  Assembly  more 
than  half  a  century  after  it  had  been  settled  in  the  National 
Educational  Association,  and  ran  precisely  the  same  course. 
After  fifteen  years  of  mild  but  persistent  agitation,  during  which 
the  Auxiliary  Superintendent’s  report  was  read  to  the  Assembly 
by  a  secretary,  she  was  at  last  permitted  to  present  her  report 
herself  in  this  present  year  of  our  Lord,  1928. 

1|r  N  REVIEWING  the  work  of  the  women  of  our  Church,  we  are 

indebted  for  nearly  all  our  facts  to  three  admirable  histories 
written  by  women,  each  one  of  whom  could  truly  say  “quorum 
pars  magna  fui”.  I  refer  to  “pioneer  women  of  the  Presbyterian 
CHURCH,  u.  s.”  (1923),  by  Mrs.  Mary  D.  Irvine  assisted  by  Miss 
Alice  L.  Eastwood;  “the  history  of  the  woman’s  auxiliary’’, 
by  Miss  Jennie  Hanna,  given  at  the  second  annual  meeting  of 
what  was  then  known  as  the  Woman’s  Council  at  Kansas  City, 
Mo.,  in  1914;  and  “the  woman’s  auxiliary,  Presbyterian  church 
u.  s.”  (1927),  by  Mrs.  W.  C.  Winsborough. 

■^^KOARIOUS  ancient  records  and  minute  books,  yellow  and  moth- 
^  eaten,  make  it  plain  that  in  many  places  in  the  South,  Pres¬ 
byterian  women  in  local  churches  were  organized  for  many 
forms  of  Christian  work  as  far  back  as  the  first  quarter  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  By  the  time  the  Southern  Ihresbyteriau 
Church  was  organized  and  the  Civil  War  ended,  the  majority  of 
our  churches  had  some  form  of  local  woman’s  organization,  and 
many  of  them  had  three  or  four,  all  born  of  a  desire  to  meet 
local  needs  or  to  carry  the  Gospel  to  the  heathen  world. 

S  PROSPERITY  slowly  returned  to  the  stricken  and  devas- 
tated  South,  these  societies  of  godly  women  continued  to 
multiply,  and  to  enlarge  and  diversify  their  activities.  Of  the 
good  they  accomplished  no  adequate  account  has  even  been  given 
or  can  be  given.  Their  record  is  on  high.  They  aided  the  pastor 
in  numberless  ways,  they  looked  after  the  furnishing  and  equip¬ 
ment  of  the  church  building,  they  helped  in  the  care  of  the  sick 
and  the  poor,  they  searched  out  and  visited  the  new  families, 
they  supported  young  men  through  college  and  seminary,  they 
helped  the  mission  work  in  congregation.  Presbytery,  Synod,  and 
Assembly,  and  many  a  time  the  Woman’s  Society  was  the  only 


agency  that  kept  some  weak  and  discouraged  little  church  alive 
and  functioning.  What  the  prayer  life  of  these  societies,  “where 
two  or  three  are  met  together  in  My  2^ame'\  has  meant  in  the 
life  of  the  Church,  the  State,  the  Nation,  God  alone  knows.  In 
a  church  of  which  I  was  pastor,  there  suddenly  developed  a  deep 
and  genuine  revival,  resulting  in  many  conversions.  As  it  was 
in  the  heat  of  summer,  with  no  special  meeting  in  progress, 
I  was  as  much  surprised  as  delighted,  until  I  discovered  that 
for  some  weeks  previous,  without  any  public  notice  given,  one 
of  the  women’s  societies  had  been  meeting  daily  to  pray  for  an 
outpouring  of  the  Spirit. 


IjQ  UT  the  chief  interest  of  these  societies,  the  purpose  for  which 
most  of  them  were  organized,  was  Foreign  Missions.  In 
hundreds  of  churches  where  the  men  seemed  as  a  rule  indifferent 
to  this  cause  which  was  declared  by  our  first  General  Assembly 
to  be  the  very  object  of  the  Church’s  existence,  the  missionary 
fires  were  kept  alive  and  glowing  on  the  altar  of  our  women’s 
hearts,  as  they  met  weekly  or  monthly  to  hear  about,  and  pray 
for,  and  give  to,  often  out  of  their  pitifully  small  means,  that 
great  cause  which  lay  so  near  our  Master’s  heart  and  formed 
the  burden  of  His  last  command.  How  our  Church’s  Foreign 
Mission  work  would  have  fared  during  those  years  without  these 
societies  of  devoted  women  it  is  painful  to  contemplate. 


this  cause  seems  to  make  a  peculiar  appeal  to  women 
has  been  a  frequent  subject  of  inquiry.  May  not  the 
answer  lie  in  two  characteristics  of  hers,  which,  though  a  snare 
and  a  curse  when  misdirected,  are  yet  her  distinctive  strength 
and  glory.  The  first  is  the  simplicity  and  directness  with  which 
she  sees  her  ends  and  moves  toward  them.  Precisely  this  is 
what  Kipling  emphasizes  and  illustrates  in  that  famous  poem  of 
his  with  its  startling  refrain,  “For  the  female  of  the  species  is 
more  deadly  than  the  male”.  When  this  simplicity  and  intensity 
of  aim  are  focussed  not  on  deadly  but  on  heavenly  ends,  she  sets 
us  a  glorious  example.  What  in  human  language  could  be  plainer 
or  more  emphatic  than  our  Lord’s  missionary  command  with  its 
two  tremendous  adjectives,  “Go  ye  into  all  the  icorld  and  preach 
the  gospel  to  every  creature''?  It  is  the  woman’s  glory  that 


with  the  same  simplicity  and  intensity  with  which  our  Lord 
uttered  this  command,  she  accepts  it  and  moves  to  its  accom¬ 
plishment. 

Cnir'HE  other  distinctive  characteristic  explaining  her  Foreign 
Mission  zeal  is  the  unusual  measure  in  which  she  possesses 
that  divinest  of  all  God’s  attributes,  compassion.  This  it  was 
that  impelled  the  first  missionary,  the  Son  of  God  Himself,  to 
leave  His  Father’s  House  and  come  down  to  our  sin-cursed, 
suffering  race  to  bring  us  the  glad  news  of  Redemption  and  Life 
Eternal.  And  the  measure  in  which  we  yearn  to  carry  the  glad 
tidings  to  the  suffering  darkened  millions  of  heathendom  is  the 
measure  of  our  likeness  to  Him. 


1|D  UT  in  the  work  of  these  various  church  societies  one  serious 
lack  was  felt.  While  nearly  every  church  of  any  size  had 
its  women’s  organization,  and  often  three  or  four  in  the  same 
church,  of  course  under  sessional  control,  working  along  differ¬ 
ent  lines  to  different  ends,  yet  among  these  societies  there  was 
no  uniformity  of  organization,  no  systematic  way  of  getting 
together  for  conference,  no  educational  policy  for  training  these 
groups  of  earnest  women  in  the  whole  work  of  the  Church  or 
promoting  efficiency  by  a  wide  study  of  the  best  methods.  There 
was  no  department  in  the  Church  for  handling  such  matters. 
Indeed,  so  conservative  was  our  Southern  Church  that  there  was 
much  opposition  to  any  organization  above  the  local  societies. 


■jirN  1884  the  effort  to  supply  this  need  began  to  take  definite 
shape.  In  that  year  Miss  Jennie  Hanna,  of  Kansas  City,  Mo., 
a  woman  in  delicate  health,  but  of  rare  gifts,  of  apostolic  vision, 
and  of  heroic  faith  and  energy,  published  an  article  advocating 
the  bringing  together  of  the  societies  of  each  Presbytery  into  a 
Presbyterial  Union,  after  the  plan  in  use  in  the  Northern  Pres¬ 
byterian  Church.  Stirred  by  this  article,  Mrs.  Josiah  Sibley,  of 
Augusta,  Ga.,  a  much  older  woman  of  similar  spirit,  seconded 
Miss  Hanna’s  efforts,  and  two  years  later  these  two  devoted 
women,  in  the  face  of  determined  opposition  from  many  ecclesi¬ 
astical  leaders  and  innumerable  other  obstacles,  succeeded  in 
transmitting  to  the  women  of  our  2,000  churches  the  plan  for 


6 


Presbyterial  organizations.  These  efforts  bore  fruit.  Our  women 
began  to  see  and  feel  the  necessity  of  further  organization.  In 
May,  1888,  were  organized  the  two  Presbyterial  Unions  of  East 
Hanover,  Va.,  and  Wilmington,  N.  C.,  at  first  for  Foreign  Mis¬ 
sions  only.  Before  the  close  of  the  year  eighteen  more  were  in 
existence.  The  next  year  saw  others  formed,  despite  the  stren¬ 
uous  opposition  of  prominent  ministers.  By  1912  the  women  of 
all  the  Presbyteries  except  two  were  organized. 


■jr  N  1904  were  organized  the  first  Synodicals,  those  of  Virginia 
and  Texas,  thus  uniting  the  extremes  of  our  Church’s  terri¬ 
tory.  In  1908  Alabama  was  organized  at  Birmingham,  in  1910 
Missouri  at  Kansas  City,  and  Georgia  at  Atlanta,  and  in  1911 
Kentucky  at  Louisville. 


Hpi  UT  as  yet  there  was  no  general  overhead  organization  to 
unite  these  six  Synodical  and  eighty-odd  Presbyterial 
Unions.  The  opening  of  1911  saw  such  consummation  apparently 
as  far  distant  as  ever.  The  waste  of  power  and  opportunity  due 
to  the  units  remaining  scattered  was  widely  realized  among  the 
Presbyterial  and  Synodical  leaders.  The  loss  of  strength  and 
inspiration  from  lack  of  concentration  was  keenly  felt.  But  the 
faith  of  many  was  weak,  and  apprehension  was  felt  regarding 
the  possible  effect  of  even  the  bare  mention  of  a  central  organi¬ 
zation. 


'^L^HEN  the  wave  of  enthusiasm  swept  the  country  from  ocean 
to  ocean  as  the  Jubilee  was  celebrated  in  1910  and  1911, 
when  Women’s  Boards  of  all  denominations  were  having  con¬ 
ferences,  enjoying  fellowship,  reporting  progress,  comparing  and 
exchanging  plans  for  larger  efficiency,  the  Southern  Presbyterian 
Church  was  the  only  evangelical  denomination  in  the  whole 
country  which  had  no  central  organization  of  its  women,  and 
therefore  no  adequate  records  and  no  accurate  reports  of  their 
splendid  work. 


(JIIpO  A  CERTAIN  busy  mother  in  Kansas  City  there  came  a 
clear  realization  of  the  significance  and  exigency  of  the 
situation.  In  her  veins  was  the  blood  of  pioneer  home  mission- 


aries.  She  herself  had  helped  to  found  city  missions  for  Slavs 
and  Italians.  As  a  college  graduate  she  had  been  Valedictorian 
of  her  class.  During  the  spring  and  summer  of  1911  the  neces¬ 
sity  of  uniform  organization  under  a  single  leadership  so  im¬ 
pressed  her  that  one  hot  morning,  when  the  children  had  all  gone 
to  school,  this  busy  housewife  dropped  the  breakfast  dishes  and 
wrote  out  “some  reasons  why  a  woman  secretary  is  needed’’. 
The  name  of  this  lady,  heretofore  unconnected  with  the  move¬ 
ment,  was  Mrs.  Winsborough. 


^HE  sent  the  paper  to  Mrs.  D.  A.  McMillan,  President  of  the 
^  Missouri  Synodical,  who  heartily  approved  it,  and  who 
wrote  Mrs.  Winsborough  to  make  the  acquaintance  of  Miss  Jennie 
Hanna,  also  of  Kansas  City,  whom  she  would  find  a  kindred 
spirit.  This  was  the  beginning  of  the  closest  friendship  and 
cooperation  between  these  two  remarkable  women.  Mrs.  McMillan 
submitted  Mrs.  Winsborough’s  paper  to  her  Executive  Commit¬ 
tee,  and  with  its  endorsement  forwarded  it  to  the  Presidents  of 
the  five  other  Synodicals,  Mrs.  J.  Calvin  Stewart,  Virginia; 
Mrs.  Chris  G.  Dullnig,  Texas;  Mrs.  W.  C.  Fritter,  Alabama; 
Mrs.  C.  P.  Crawford,  Georgia;  and  Mrs.  M.  D.  Irvine,  Kentucky. 
Receiving  their  unanimous  approval,  it  was  revised  and  reshaped 
by  its  author  into  the  form  of  an  overture  and  unanimously 
approved  on  November  2  by  the  Synod  of  Missouri. 

■^SL^ITH  a  view  to  the  presentation  of  this  Overture  to  the 
Assembly  of  1912,  an  unofficial  group  of  women  repre¬ 
senting  eight  Synods  met  in  Atlanta  in  February  to  arrange  for 
an  Educational  Campaign  throughout  the  Church,  with  Mrs. 
Winsborough  and  Miss  Hanna  as  a  Committee  on  Organization, 
and  Mrs.  A.  M.  Howison,  of  Staunton,  Va.,  as  Treasurer.  The 
Systematic  Beneficence  Committee,  in  session  in  Atlanta  at  the 
same  time,  gave  its  hearty  approval  to  the  women’s  plans.  The 
extraordinary  success  of  the  campaign  proved  the  time  ripe  for 
the  new  organization.  Of  this  memorable  campaign  Miss  Hanna 
says: 


HERE  was  never  at  any  time  or  under  any  circumstances 
what  might  be  called  smooth  sailing,  though  the  Over¬ 
ture  found  many  strong  champions.  Against  it  great  theological 


guns  ‘volleyed  and  thundered'.  With  Paul  we  could  say,  ‘A  great 
door  and  effectual  is  opened',  and  *there  are  many  adversaries'. 
Following  his  example  we  tarried  right  there  at  Ephesus! 


COURSE  any  new  movement  is  sure  to  encounter  un- 
favorable  criticism  and  severe  judgment.  Much  of  it 
came  from  misapprehension  and  partial  information,  but  no 
matter  how  conservative  the  man,  no  matter  how  annihilating 
his  disapproval,  he  was  almost  without  exception  courteous. 
Indeed,  we  found  many  who  were  past  masters  in  the  art  of 
being  charmingly  courteous  while  conceding  absolutely  nothing! 

‘‘TjpORTUNATELY  for  the  workers  in  the  strenuous  campaign, 
there  were  occasional  humorous  incidents  to  relieve  the 
strain.  The  titles  of  ‘limited  pope’  or  ‘woman  bishop’  even  yet 
are  sometimes  heard,  while  it  was  astonishing  how  many  far¬ 
sighted  eyes  could  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  cloven  hoof  of  ‘woman 
suffrage’.  The  name  of  ‘militant  ecclesiastical  suffragettes’  stuck 
for  a  long  time  to  the  Missouri  women,  but  never  was  used  again 
by  any  one  who  once  met  Mrs.  Winsborough  or  Mrs.  McMillan 
in  their  essential  and  gracious  womanliness.” 

CTT^HE  Overture  was  presented  to  the  Bristol  Assembly  from 
the  Missouri  Synodical,  with  the  approval  of  the  five  other 
Synodicals,  forty -one  Presbyterial  Unions,  the  Synod  of  Missouri, 
and  four  Presbyteries,  while  three  Presbyteries  sent  up  over¬ 
tures  of  protest  against  the  women’s  overture.  It  was  understood 
that  the  women  would  ask  no  financial  support  for  the  new 
department  for  two  years,  or  until  it  had  proved  its  value  to 
the  Church. 

4|^N  unanimous  recommendation  from  its  Standing  Com- 
mittee  on  Women’s  Societies  the  Assembly  adopted  the 
Overture  without  argument  and  with  no  audible  dissenting  vote. 
The  last  paragraph  of  the  Assembly  action  is  as  follows: 

HAT  the  four  Executive  Committees  be  directed  to  select 
a  woman  possessing  suitable  gifts,  who,  under  their 
direction,  shall  give  her  whole  time  to  the  work  of  organizing 
our  women  into  Synodical  and  Presbyterial  Unions  and  local 


societies  under  control  of  Synods,  Presbyteries,  and  Sessions, 
respectively;  coordinating  Woman’s  and  Young  People’s  Societies 
now  organized;  stimulating  interest  by  gathering  and  dissemin¬ 
ating  needed  information  in  order  that  this  mighty  Auxiliary 
in  our  Church’s  life  and  growth  may  become  even  more  fruitful 
of  good  than  in  the  past.” 


Cnir'HE  four  Executive  Secretaries,  who,  at  the  request  of  the 
women,  had  been  appointed  the  Supervisory  Committee  of 
the  Auxiliary,  met  by  direction  of  the  Assembly  the  following 
summer  at  Montreat  with  the  Synodical  Presidents  to  outline 
and  erect  the  new  organization. 

UpOR  months  Mrs.  Winsborough  and  Miss  Hanna,  with  the 
Synodical  Presidents,  had  been  diligently  searching  for  the 
proper  woman  to  head  the  new  organization  and  had  secured  the 
consent  of  a  gifted  Georgia  woman  to  undertake  the  arduous 
task.  But,  just  before  the  Montreat  meeting,  circumstances  over 
which  she  had  no  control  compelled  her  to  decline  the  proposed 
office.  Immediately  after  the  Assembly,  both  Executive  Secre¬ 
taries  and  Synodical  Presidents  had  urged  the  office  upon  Mrs. 
Winsborough  as  the  woman  preeminently  best  qualified  for  it, 
but  for  personal  reasons  she  had  positively  declined  to  consider 
it.  When,  however,  no  other  woman  was  in  sight,  and  the 
laborious  and  prayerful  planning  of  years  seemed  doomed  to 
failure  for  lack  of  a  leader,  Mrs.  Winsborough  reluctantly  and  at 
great  personal  sacrifice  consented  to  accept  office  for  six  months 
until  some  one  else  could  be  found.  She  was  accordingly  elected 
by  the  Supervisory  Committee,  not  as  Secretary,  that  name 
having  aroused  opposition,  but  as  Superintendent  of  “The  Wom¬ 
an’s  Auxiliary  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States”, 
that  being  the  official  designation  adopted.  Temporary  head¬ 
quarters  were  fixed  at  Kansas  City,  and  Mrs.  A.  M.  Howison  was 
elected  Treasurer.  The  Presidents  of  the  Synodicals  were  con¬ 
stituted  an  Advisory  Committee. 


TID  EFORE  the  meeting  of  the  next  Assembly  nine  months  later, 
every  Presbyterial  and  Synodical  in  the  Church  was  or¬ 
ganized,  and  at. the  expiration  in  1914  of  the  two  probationary 


10 


years  the  value  of  the  new  organization  was  formally  and  warmly 
recognized  by  the  Assembly  and  its  budget  ordered  furnished 
by  the  four  Executive  Committees. 

■jlTN  1913  the  faithful  and  efiicient  Treasurer,  Mrs.  Howison,  was 
forced  by  ill  health  to  resign,  and  Mrs.  D.  A.  McMillan,  one 
of  the  most  loved  and  trusted  leaders  of  the  movement  from  its 
beginning,  was  made  Treasurer,  and  for  fifteen  years  has  dis¬ 
charged  the  duties  of  her  office  with  eminent  success. 

IjTN  1918  the  headquarters  of  the  Auxiliary,  after  two  years  in 
Kansas  City  and  four  in  Atlanta,  were  permanently  located 
in  St.  Louis. 

■jlTN  1923  the  Woman’s  Work  of  our  Church  was  given  a  further 
proper  and  logical  development  by  the  appointment  by  the 
Montreat  Assembly  of  three  women  on  each  of  the  four  Executive 
Committees.  This  action  was  taken,  though  in  the  face  of  strong 
opposition,  by  a  decisive  vote.  At  the  following  Assembly  efforts 
made  to  rescind  what  had  been  done  were  overwhelmingly  de¬ 
feated.  Experience  had  abundantly  demonstrated  the  wisdom 
of  the  Assembly’s  action. 

ITN  1927,  when  the  Committee  on  the  Assembly’s  Work  was 
created,  it  was  decided  that  eleven  of  the  forty-four  members 
should  be  women,  a  proportion  that  will  no  doubt  be  increased 
before  many  years.  The  supervision  of  the  Woman’s  Auxiliary, 
exercised  since  its  organization  by  the  four  Executive  Secre¬ 
taries,  was  transferred  to  the  Committee  on  the  Assembly’s 
Work,  by  which  it  was  specifically  assigned  to  Sub-Committee 
on  Woman’s  Work,  composed  of  five  of  its  woman  members.  On 
recommendation  of  the  Committee  on  the  Assembly’s  Work,  the 
official  title  of  the  chief  executive  of  the  Woman’s  Auxiliary  was 
changed  from  Superintendent  to  Secretary,  the  name  originally 
desired  by  the  women. 

CirHE  very  latest  development  in  our  Woman’s  Work  has  al- 
ready  been  referred  to,  namely  the  gracious  permission 
granted  by  the  Assembly  to  the  Secretary  of  Woman’s  Work  to 


present  her  report  to  the  Assembly  instead  of  having  it  presented 
for  her  hy  some  other  Secretary. 

lirN  CLOSING  this  survey  it  may  be  well  to  signalize  some  of 
the  providential  developments  and  unique  features  that  mark 
the  history  and  organization  of  this  truly  remarkable  movement, 
in  many  respects  the  most  noteworthy  in  the  annals  of  our 
Church.  Born  in  prayer,  cradled  and  nourished  in  prayer,  car¬ 
ried  forward  against  difficulties  and  obstacles  innumerable  hy 
the  heroic  faith  and  zeal  of  many  of  the  noblest  women  that  ever 
a  Church  was  blessed  with,  we  should  naturally  expect  to  find 
in  it  features  both  providential  and  unique. 

2^  Who  could  have  foreseen  that  God  would  call  to  the  leader¬ 
ship  of  a  movement  making  such  demands  upon  time  and 
strength  a  busy  housewife,  the  mother  of  six  children, 
whose  family  responsibilities  were  already  taking  full  toll 
of  time  and  effort?  She  consented  only  to  step  into  the 
breach  till  the  right  woman  could  be  found.  How  the  way 
was  opened  for  her  to  continue,  and  the  work  made  pos¬ 
sible  that  seemed  humanly  impossible,  is  but  another  il¬ 
lustration  of  that  divine  Sovereignty  which  answers  the 
cry  of  His  people,  whether  they  be  oppressed  Israelites  or 
perplexed  Presbyterian  women,  and  gives  them  the  leader¬ 
ship  they  need  and  that  He  Himself  has  chosen.  That  this 
selection  was  of  God  no  one  can  doubt  who  has  eyes  to 
see  the  difficulties  and  problems  through  which  the  work 
has  been  guided  or  the  shining  success  it  has  already 
attained. 

2.  The  most  characteristic  phase  of  our  woman’s  organiza¬ 
tion,  and  its  strongest  point,  is  its  inclusion  of  the  whole 
program  of  the  Church  in  its  study,  prayers,  and  gifts.  In 
this  it  is,  I  believe,  absolutely  unique,  pioneering  the  way 
which  the  woman's  organizations  of  other  Churches  are 
beginning  to  follow. 

^  At  a  time  when  practically  all  the  woman’s  church  organi¬ 
zations  were  “Boards”,  more  or  less  independent,  our 
Southern  Presbyterian  women  decided  that  their  organi- 


zation  should  be  only  auxiliary  and  promotional  to  the 
regular  work  of  the  Church.  Though  many  other  denomi¬ 
national  Women’s  Boards  were  collecting  and  administering 
their  own  missionary  money,  our  Auxiliary  felt  it  wiser 
to  unify  the  work  of  the  local  Church  by  sending  its 
Auxiliary  gifts  through  the  local  Church  Treasurer  to 
the  places  for  which  they  were  intended. 

It  is  noteworthy  that,  as  a  consequence  of  “2”  and  “3”, 
when  the  Assembly  added  women  members  to  its  Executive 
Committees,  and  when  its  supervision  was  transferred 
from  the  Executive  Secretaries  to  the  Committee  on  the 
Assembly’s  Work,  no  change  was  involved  in  the  Woman’s 
Auxiliary,  nor  any  plan  disturbed  which  was  then  in 
operation.  Whatever  expansion  of  Church  life  and  work 
may  hereafter  take  place,  the  Auxiliary  is  so  organized 
as  naturally  and  easily  to  expand  with  it. 

All  the  women  of  the  Church  are  expected  to  contribute 
weekly  through  the  duplex  envelopes  as  members  of  the 
Church,  the  Auxiliary  receiving  no  report  of  these  gifts. 
Each  Auxiliary  has  its  own  “over  and  above’’  budget  which 
includes  gifts  for  all  the  causes  of  the  Church,  and  also 
for  the  support  and  promotion  of  the  Presbyterials  and 
Synodicals  and  other  departments  of  Woman’s  Work. 

The  Birthday  Offering,  commemorating  the  birth  of  the 
Woman’s  Auxiliary,  is  “over  and  above”  all  other  budgets, 
a  happy  freewill  offering,  given  to  Home  or  Foreign 
Missions,  or  some  other  Assembly  cause,  to  supply  some 
sorely  felt  equipment  need  for  the  uplift  and  training  of 
women  and  girls. 

The  gifts  of  the  Auxiliaries  last  year,  aside  from  their 
contribution  through  the  Church  budget,  reached  the 
amazing  total  of  $1,716,281. 

The  Auxiliary  Circle  Plan,  oflacially  adopted  in  1917,  has 
proved  itself,  in  the  Auxiliary’s  own  experience  and  in 
the  judgment  of  leaders  of  other  denominations,  the  most 


efficient  plan  of  women’s  church  organization  in  use  today. 
These  circles  embrace  all  the  women  of  the  Church,  since 
no  woman  joins  the  Auxiliary,  but  all  are  members  of  it 
by  virtue  of  their  church  membership.  In  addition  to 
various  other  excellent  results,  this  plan  is  a  most  power¬ 
ful,  and  indeed  the  only  systematic  agency  for  reaching 
the  “indifferent”  women  in  the  Church.  It  places  definite 
and  constant  responsibility  upon  the  active  missionary 
women  for  reaching  and  interesting  these  indifferent  ones, 
and  has  been  markedly  successful  in  solving  this  most 
difficult  problem. 


7^  From  the  very  beginning  of  the  Auxiliary,  paramount 
emphasis  has  always  been  placed  upon  the  spiritual,  and 
as  a  direct  means  thereto,  the  educational  elements  of  its 
work.  The  training  of  the  women  in  all  departments  of 
Church  work  through  the  Year  Book  of  Programs,  of 
which  38,000  were  sold  last  year,  and  through  the  promo¬ 
tion  of  special  seasons  of  study  and  prayer  for  all  the 
causes,  has  gone  forward  by  leaps  and  bounds.  Home  and 
Foreign  Missions  had  each  last  year  some  2,400  Study 
Classes,  each  of  these  causes  enrolling  some  47,000  stu¬ 
dents.  Increasingly  has  the  Word  of  God  focussed  the 
minds  and  hearts  of  the  women  through  the  Bible  Studies 
in  the  Year  Book,  additional  Bible  Studies  by  gifted 
teachers  printed  each  year  by  the  Auxiliary,  special  Studies 
of  the  Gospels,  and  the  like,  this  steadily  mounting  effort 
to  have  “fTie  word  of  Christ  dwell  in  you  richly'^  being 
partially  indicated  by  last  year’s  figures  of  3,840  Bible 
Classes  with  an  enrollment  of  56,935.  Accompanying  this 
has  been  the  ever-growing  emphasis  on  Tithing,  on  Stew¬ 
ardship,  on  Family  Altars,  and  especially  on  Prayer,  last 
year’s  5,611  Prayer  Bands  enrolling  59,216  members. 


jpvF  THE  Auxiliary’s  White  Cross  work,  its  Training  School 
work,  its  work  for  Young  People,  its  Conferences  for 
Colored  Women,  and  various  other  activities,  I  have  not  space 
to  speak.  Yet  I  should  not  fail  to  say  that  daughter  Auxiliaries 
are  multiplying  in  Korea,  Mexico,  Brazil,  and  will  soon  be  found 


14 


in  all  our  foreign  fields.  I  attended  for  two  days  a  Presbyterial 
at  Varginha,  Brazil,  representing  eighteen  local  Auxiliaries, 
conducted  almost  wholly  by  Brazilian  women,  and  in  a  manner 
that  I  have  not  seen  surpassed  anywhere  in  the  home  land. 

CTirHE  fame  of  our  Woman's  Auxiliary  is  growing.  Scores  of 
churches  in  other  denominations  are  copying  it  in  whole 
or  in  part.  Very  recently  the  Methodist  Protestant  denomination 
officially  adopted  our  plan  of  organization  and  is  installing  it 
in  all  its  churches. 

Ijr  ET  me  close  with  a  few  sentences  from  Miss  Jennie  Hanna, 
whose  sainted  spirit  we  may  trust  still  follows  with  pride 
and  joy  the  ever-widening  fruitfulness  of  this  vine  whose  seed 
she  planted  in  faith  and  watered  with  her  prayers.  They  were 
written  some  months  after  the  Auxiliary  had  been  organized. 

‘‘CTlir  HE  results  of  these  few  months  show  to  a  marked  degree 
the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  without  which  neither 
administrative  ability  nor  perfected  organization  would  have 
availed  anything.  The  outlook  is  a  call  to  renewed  faithfulness. 
The  Woman’s  Auxiliary  will  come  far  short  of  its  high  calling 
if  it  forgets  it  must  be  more  than  an  organization.  It  must  be 
an  organism  indwelt  by  life,  the  Life  which  is  life  indeed.  We 
are  part  of  His  body  and  apart  from  Him  we  can  do  nothing. 
Our  passion,  like  our  Master’s,  must  be  for  souls,  not  forms  nor 
machinery.  Only  so  can  we  exalt  Him  who  said,  ‘7,  if  I  he  lifted 
up,  will  draw  all  men  unto  me’.” 


“Tfe  hath  sounded  forth  the  trumpet 
Which  shall  never  call  retreat 
Oh,  he  swift  my  soul  to  answer  Him, 
Be  jubilant  my  feet!” 


15 


Send  3c  to  Cover  Postage 

.  •?**  “Reprint’^  1932 
Committee  on  Woman’s  Work 
The  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States 
Henry  Grady  Building 
Atlanta,  Ga. 


